Anti-fraud tech added to food safety docs

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) is urging the organisations which carry out audits for its standards programme to start using digital signatures in a bid to protect the scheme against fraud.

The organisation's Global Standards programme sets safety standards for the production of food, consumer products and packaging, allowing retailers and consumers to buy with confidence.

The audits for the programme are carried out by certification bodies who issue thousands of certificates. Many large UK retailers will only consider business with suppliers who have gained certification to the appropriate BRC Global Standard, the organisation said.

But as these can be vulnerable to fraud (by people changing the information on the form) certification bodies are being encouraged to adopt new software designed by Adobe and GeoTrust, that will make it harder to falsify or modify electronic certificates issued.

By adding a digital signature to the document, if it is later modified then when the document is opened it will display a warning.

BRC head of technical services Kevin Swoffer, said safeguarding certificates against fraud is an important aspect of maintaining the trust suppliers and retailers have in the brand.

He said the certification authorities should strongly consider using the digital signatures which "will make it much harder to abuse the system."